The
following is a TV report by the Inner Mongolia TV (NMTV)
Mongolian Service, regarding 18 Mongolian herder's households
who were forced to leave their ancestral grazing land under
China's "Ecological Migration" policy and were refused to return
to their land even after the contract termination. The following
is the English transcription of the
original Mongolian report:

How are Policies Implemented?

NMTV Live-12

English Translation and
Transcription by SMHRIC

Dear
viewers, in our previous program we reported on the five-year
long extreme hardships experienced by 18 herder households of
Shin-gol Gachaa, Ulaan-haalag Som of Right Uzumchin Banner, who
had to leave their contracted land as the “Desert Combat
Project” was launched. What then is the current situation of
these 18 herder households? Were they able to return to their
land? Our reporters recently made a follow-up report on this
case. Please stay tuned.

This film
was made by our “Live 12” reporters during their on-site
investigation in Shin-gol Gachaa, Ulaan-haalag Som of Right
Uzumchin Banner, in August 2005. Let us re-investigate the case
presented in that broadcast.

Gahain-Eles is a narrow desert belt running across the Right
Uzumchin Banner from the north-west to the south-east. Beginning
in the year 2000, , this area has become the primary target of
Right Uzumchin Banner’s “Strategic Policy of Locking up the Land
and Driving out the Population” because it is home to half the
population of herders of Shin-gol Gachaa, Ulaan-haalag Som,
Large tracts of lands have been confiscated and herders turned
landless.

Rashinimaa,
Party Secretary and the Head of Ulaan-haalag Som, Right Uzumchin
Banner:

“Five
years ago, this place was a desert where sandstorms were
rampant. Everything was buried under sand.”

The
Government of Right Uzumchin Banner approved the local
government’s request for locking up the land of Shin-gol Gachaa
immediately, and included the region into the “Jing-Jin (Beijing
and Tianjin) Region Desert Combat National Project”, displacing
the first 16 herder households from the land in July 2000 and
fencing off the land.

B.Soyolt,
who was head of one of the 16 households displaced in July 2000,
lost 2,225 mu (150 hectare) land along with the entire
infrastructure to the “Jing-Jin Region Desert Combat National
Project” and was displaced to the Banner’s Ecological Migration
New Town along with two other herder households to raise dairy
cows inside a fenced area. His is the only household from Shin-gol
Gachaa still living there. During the past five years, in order
to make a living, he had to work for others on a temporarily
basis and beg for grazing land from others to raise his
remaining few heads of livestock. Eventually, his household was
left with a large amount of debt, losing their entire livestock.

“The
policy said the implementation period is only for five years.
Five year is over. We are still not allowed to return to our
land, and not a single penny has been paid to us.”

After the
displacement, Hureltogoo and his family members have worked for
others as temporary and cheap laborers across both Right and
Left Uzumchin banner, earning almost nothing, and their
livestock has been reduced to a few dozen heads only.

Hureltogoo:

“My
daughter got married three days ago and today is the ‘Day of
Returning’ as our Mongolian tradition. I am supposed to see her
in her new family today. But in order to make ends meet for the
rest of our family, I was not able to see my daughter…. Sorry
for my daughter….”

“These 16
households have been leading the life of wanderers after they
lost their lands. Some of them work for others temporarily. They
hardly find a job to make a living in any place they arrive.
Some of them just beg for food and land from others to make ends
meet.”

Our
Program (Live 12) has been working on this case for over a year.
Let us have a glance at the living condition of these herders
from Shin-gol Gachaa. The contract of “Locking up the land” has
already expired since June 2005. Then, were they able to return
to their land? For this, we visited Shin-gol Gachaa this winter.
Surprisingly, we found that none of the 18 evicted households
has been allowed to return to their land even after the contract
expiration. Only the two households of B.Soyolt and Segmid are
living in the Shin-gol Migrants New Town. The other 16 are still
drifting from place to place in cities and towns trying to keep
body and soul together.

The
so-called “Shin-gol Migrants New Town” is nothing more than a
residential area with 120 matchbox-like small huts and narrow
cells for livestock. Each household must fit into an extremely
small single-room hut with a total area of 20 square meters.

B-Soyolt:

“Here is
the contract which clearly states the land will be locked up
from 2000, and the five-year contract will expire on June 30,
2005. However, the Banner Government has never addressed this
issue for our 18 displaced households. During the five years,
not a single penny has been paid to us as compensation and no
preferential treatment has been given to us. Now we are not
allowed to return to our land. They (the government) ordered us
to raise cows inside a fenced area, saying grazing sheep is not
allowed. Why don’t we have the right to come back to our own
land to raise even a single goat after spending five-years
wandering around outside our own lands? Until today, we have
been feeding ourselves with food borrowed from others. We are
already up to the neck in debt!”

While
these herders of Shin-gol Gachaa were deprived of the right to
return to their own land and refused compensation for the
five-year displacement, Mr. Adiya, Vice Chairman of Shiliin-gol
League, came to the Migrant Town for an investigation of the
case in March 2006.

B-Soyolt:

“On May
15, Mr. Adiya visited us again, and talked to some of us. Then
he promised to address the problem to help us overcome the
extreme hardship. We then visited the Banner Government
departments many times to ask for a prompt resolution. The
League Government delegated the right to the Banner Government
to have the case of the 18 displaced households resolved
accordingly.”

Shortly after the
League Vice Chairman Adiya left, the Office of Letter and Visit
(a government branch setup to supposedly listen to local
people’s complaints and address their issues ) of the Banner
Party Committee and Government issued an official document and
reported to the League Government, claiming that the Office has
already addressed the problem of the 18 displaced herder
households of the Shin-gol Gachaa. In this document, the Banner
Government has responded to the herders’ complaints in 6
specific ways. The main content on how to resettle these 18
households didn’t mention anything about compensation, but
claimed that if these herders voluntarily move to the Migrants’
New Town and each household pays 6,000 yuan to the government,
then each household will be given a 40 square meter house and 50
square meter livestock shelter by the government. If each herder
household pays 4,000 yuan to the government, the government will
subsidize the rest to buy two Holstein dairy cows for the
household. If the herders choose to buy Simmental dairy cows,
the government will subsidize only 2,000 yuan and the herders
must pay the rest. The problem is that these homeless herders
who want to move to the Migrant New Town simply can’t afford to
pay 6,000 yuan for the housing. Interestingly enough, the
document stated that the land concerning the 18 households
doesn’t include B.Soyolt’s land.

B-Soyolt:

“This
document was issued on August 21, 2006 by the Banner Government.
We do not accept the document and do not agree with what it
says. It is extremely unfair that the document says I, B.Soyolt,
haven’t possessed any land even before the displacement, stating
that B.Soyolt’s land is part of D.Buhee’s and B.Soyolt has
illegally occupied D.Buhee’s land for 8 years. D.Buhee indeed
left his land to Left Uzumchin 8 years ago. But his land is
10-15 kilometers away from us.”

The said
document by the Letter and Visit Office of Right Uzumchin
People’s Government and the Party Committee also admitted that 6
kids of herders of Shin-gol Gachaa stopped schooling due to the
financial hardship during 2000 to 2005, and 5 of them have
already completely dropped out of school.

This is
A.Soyol, one of the herders of 18 displaced households, who had
to drift from place to place in other Sums during this five-year
period. In 2005, he tried but was not allowed to return to his
grazing land. With no other choice, he had to find shelter in a
dairy cow farm for whom he works as a cheap labor.

A-Soyol,
herder of Shin-gol Gachaa:

“My family
was driven out of our land in 1999, and came back on August 24,
2005. Then, on the second day of our return, August 25, we were
fined 1,500 yuan by the government for keeping our sheep with
us. They said we are allowed to raise dairy cows only. Raising
sheep is illegal. If we have enough money we can consider buying
some dairy cows. But the problem is that dairy cows are very
expensive. Each costs us at least 20,000 yuan which is almost
equal to the total price of 100 sheep. We can’t even afford to
buy a single cow with all of our sheep.”

The family
of A-Soyol have no fixed residence even today. They wanted to
move to the Migrant’s New Town, but have no money to pay 6,000
yuan for the single-room small house. No choice but to stay in
the dormitory of the dairy cow farm where they work.

A-Soyol:

“This is
our life: homeless, landless, and foodless. To keep our
remaining few animals, we must beg for other’s land. To make
ends meet, we must work for others.”

When we
arrived at Shin-gol Gachaa, a single lonely Mongol yurt without
any fence at the southern foot of a small hill drew our
attention. We found out that this is the family of Munkhbaatar,
a herder family of Shin-gol Gachaa, who was also driven out of
their land since 2000. They tried to return to their land with
their remaining livestock, but were not allowed to do so by the
government. They left their livestock to others, and came back
with a yurt only.

Altanchecheg, herder of Shin-gol Gachaa:

“We are
not allowed to have sheep and goats. Only dairy cow is allowed.
But we had to sell all of our cows and horses before we moved
out. We kept some of our sheep. Now we have to ask others to
take care of these remaining sheep.”

Then, what
is the reaction of the Party Committee and the People’s
Government of Right Uzumchin Banner to the resettlement of these
18 displaced herder households? Why did they issue an official
document to state that they have already addressed the issue?

Deputy
Chief of Right Uzumchin Banner:

“Let me
ask you! What answer do you want? We have already given them
everything. First of all, I allowed them to keep some livestock;
second, they complained they have no shelters. I built houses
for them; third, they said they have nothing to do in the new
place. I brought dairy cows for them. What else do you want?”

Reporter:

“So, do
you mean this issue is addressed and the case is closed?”

Deputy
Chief of Right Uzumchin Banner:

“Yes, it
is closed!”

The
tremendous effort made to return to their lands by these 18
herder households who were displaced under the Government and
Party policy of “combating desert and returning green to the
land” is plausible. However, unfortunately, the sacrifices they
have to suffer are equally enormous. Therefore, Banner and
County government agencies need to be aware of their
responsibilities, and implement the laws and regulations in a
just and proper manner.